Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Raises Dividend to $0.45 Per Share

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the business services provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39.

Verisk Analytics has increased its dividend by an average of 10.4% per year over the last three years. Verisk Analytics has a dividend payout ratio of 19.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Verisk Analytics to earn $7.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.5%.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK traded down $11.22 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $288.51. 781,633 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 705,704. Verisk Analytics has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $300.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market cap of $40.74 billion, a PE ratio of 44.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $283.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $277.87.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Company Profile

Verisk Analytics, Inc provides data analytics and technology solutions to the insurance markets in the United States and internationally. It offers policy language, prospective loss costs, policy writing and rating rules, and various underwriting solutions for risk selection and segmentation, pricing, and workflow optimization; property- and auto- specific rating and underwriting information solutions that allows clients to understand, quantify, underwrite, mitigate, and avoid potential loss for risks; catastrophe modeling solutions, which enables companies to identify, quantify, and plan for the financial consequences of catastrophes for use by insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, financial institutions, and governments.